Hello

22 February 2019

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

The ADM Readers' albums of 2015

The votes are in, the counting's done. Here's YOUR views on the best music released in 2015

Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell

Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly

Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness

Jamie xx In Colour

Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit And
Think…

Joanna Newsom Divers

Grimes Art Angels

Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment
Surf

Beach House Depression Cherry

Björk Vulnicura

Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear

Tame Impala Currents

Sleater-Kinney No Cities To Love

Speedy Ortiz Foil Deer

Kamasi Washington The Epic

Kurt Vile B'lieve I'm Going Down

Titus Andronicus The Most Lamentable
Tragedy

Beach House Thank Your Lucky Stars

Carly Rae Jepsen Emotion

Ezra Furman Perpetual Motion People

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What's this? A best albums of 2015 poll that doesn't have To
Pimp A Butterfly at No.1? If we weren't 100% confident in our own
calculations we'd be tempted to demand a recount.

So dominant has Kendrick Lamar's creation been
that we never really expected anything other than further
confirmation of its status as an instant classic.

Does the fact that it was nudged down to No.2 by Sufjan
Stevens prove what an independently-minded bunch of music
lovers you ADM readers are? Maybe. But then Carrie & Lowell was
the No.2 album in both our Poll of Polls list and our ADM Top 10 so
it probably constitutes more of a slight deviation from the
critical consensus than outright contrariness.

That view is supported by the familiarity of most of the names up
at the top of our readers' chart. However you lot are clearly more
appreciative of Beach House than the critics, with
both of the duo's 2015 releases figuring prominently whereas only
Depression Cherry appeared in the Poll of Polls and even then only
down at No.24.

And if we were tempted to conclude that the preference for Sufjan
Stevens over Kendrick Lamar hinted at less enthusiasm for hip hop
than that displayed by the critics, the appearance of
Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment in the
top 10 counteracts that. Surf, the debut from Nico Segal's hip hop
and soul outfit, mustered only a lowly 36th slot in our Poll of
Polls.